> List item labels are *part of content*.
How something like this::
<ol numbers="auto">
<li>item 1</li>
<li>item 2</li>
<li>item 3</li>
<li>item 4</li>
<li>item 5</li>
</ol>
gives:
1. item 1
2. item 2
3. item 3
4. item 4
5. item 5
<ol numbers="manual">
<li><n>1.</n>article 1</li>
<li><n>2.</n>article 2</li>
<li><n>3.</n>article 3</li>
<li><n>3a.</n>article 3a</li>
<li><n>4.</n>article 4</li>
</ol>
gives:
1. item 1
2. item 2
3. item 3
3a. item 3a
4. item 4
With this setup, any numbering system can be used, without trying to predict
all possibilities in the spec.
"auto" would be the default, so you could have a list with numbers generated
by the UA, or for, say, a legal document, where the certainty of the actual
numbers is more important, could be done manually. (This sort of thing is
used in Ruby the last time I looked at it, where a small piece of content
(in that case a bracket) is surrounded by markup). If someone wanted a list
in binary, they could just mark up the 0's and 1's as number tags, <n>, and
it all is related.
"maunal" would have no generated numbers.
CSS could be used to give different number styles (roman, letters, etc)
Back to the topic, start numbers could be given by referance:
<ol numbers="auto" start="5">
<li>item 5</li>
<li>item 6</li>
<li>item 7</li>
<li>item 8</li>
</ol>
OR:
<ol numbers="auto">
<li number="5">item 5</li>
<li>item 6</li>
<li>item 7</li>
<li>item 8</li>
</ol>
gives:
5. item 5
6. item 6
7. item 7
8. item 8
The key here, would be that number="" would have to be an integer,
regardless of the output style (roman, letters, etc)
The problem as I see it, is that <ul> s and <ol>s under this system are
starting to blur, so I would recommend something like this:
<list type="">
Where type is: "unordered", "auto" or "manual". (as above) And while we are
at it, why not bring in the navigation lists too, and set:
type="navigation".
Regards,
Douglas